GROVETON – A 40-year-old Trinity man was sentenced to 10 years in prison last week after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery.
Dairek Blanton entered the plea Thursday before 258th District Judge Elizabeth Coker in Groveton.
Under a plea bargain agreement reached with District Attorney Joe Ned Dean, Blanton agreed that he or his family also would pay restitution to the two Hispanic victims of the robberies.
After being sentence to two concurrent 10-year terms in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Blanton spoke to his two victims through an interpreter.
“I would like to apologize to both ya’ll,” he said. “I know I caused you a lot of pain and I am sorry for that. May God bless you,” he said.
Blanton was arrested by Trinity police and Trinity County sheriff’s deputies on Jan. 6 following an extensive manhunt and foot chase.
Police Chief Lynn Gentry said rumors coming from the Hispanic community indicated that several people were being robbed, but most were afraid to come forward to file complaints.
When two of the victims did come forward, Gentry said officers were able to obtain arrest warrants for Blanton and launched a coordinated manhunt to locate him.
Trinity Sheriff Steven Jones noted that on Jan. 5 officers were hot on the suspect trail, arriving at locations only to miss Blanton by a few minutes.
They finally located him about 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 6 at a residence on Washington Street. When officers arrived, Blanton burst out the door and attempted to run from the scene. However, he was captured about 100 yards from the residence.
In other court action Thursday afternoon, John Wayne Watson was sentenced to serve 22 months in a state jail facility after Coker revoked a community supervision sentence granted on a drug possession charge.
Kenneth M. Goodman also was sentenced to two years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice after pleading guilty to a felony charge of unlawful possession of a firearm.